Crain’s Listing Names Lubav

By Greg David, Crain’s New York

Ben Nash , 26
PCS Wireless Inc.
Chief executive

By the standards of the Hasidic Chabad community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Ben Nash was a rebel. At yeshiva, he studied the Talmud to the exclusion of all other subjects. When he returned from two years of study in Europe, the 17-year-old dropped out of school, disenchanted with the curriculum.

“I was never good at following the rules,” he says.

Instead, he followed the money. He landed a job at Midtown Distributors, selling cell phones at a starting wage of $300 a week. Determined not to be a burden to his parents, who were supporting his eight younger siblings, he quickly became the highest-paid salesman. When the bosses moved to cut his pay, he left.

He ended up at global cell phone distributor PCS Wireless, then a $1 million operation, and rapidly boosted sales. A year later, in 2003, he was named CEO. Revenue has since soared to $165 million.

Still not satisfied, Mr. Nash has added a new business to his portfolio. Using a nest egg he built by investing in Bedford-Stuyvesant real estate, Mr. Nash plans to build two hotels in Brooklyn. He has broken ground on the smaller project, which is self-financed. A larger upscale hotel will require financing, and even this optimistic salesman knows that his project will be a tough sell in this economy.

Mr. Nash realizes that his success offers him the opportunity to help others.

He says he gives $500,000 annually to charity. And he admits, “I have no life outside of work,” ruing the fact that most of his Chabad peers have been married off by now. When pressed, though, he says he doesn’t expect his status to change anytime soon.